Under new coach, Bethlehem Catholic's rally falls short against Scranton Prep

The Bethlehem Catholic girls basketball team started this season the same way they ended the last one — by facing Scranton Prep.

Much has changed for Bethlehem Catholic in the few months since that PIAA 3A second round loss, with the girls on their second coach since March, but the Golden Hawks' regular season result Saturday afternoon was the same.

After finding itself down as much as 15 points in the first half, Bethlehem Catholic rallied to tie the game late, however, failed to complete the comeback losing to the Classics 54-52 in the Yasso-Rothrock Christmas City Classic Tournament at Liberty High School's Memorial Gym.

With just 12 days to prepare for the third-best Class 3A girls team in the latest PennLive state rankings after Megan Dellegrotti resigned November 24, many were interested to see how newly hired head coach Jose Medina's team would fare.

They struggled much of the first half missing out on opportunities and failing to take care of the ball but if the way they finished the game is any indication, they'll be just fine.

While turnovers created problems for Golden Hawks throughout the day, what may have hurt them the most was failing to score for the first 3:16 of the final quarter as they attempted to rally. The five-point deficit they faced at the end of the third quickly turned into 11 before a Maggie Melhem free throw — her only point of the quarter but 15th for the game — gave Bethlehem Catholic its first point of the final stanza.

Even with the slow start in the fourth, the Golden Hawks managed to record 13 points over the final 4:44 before ultimately falling to Scranton Prep.

Up six with less than two minutes to play, Scranton Prep walked after recovering a rebound on a missed free throw by Bethlehem Catholic, giving the ball right back to the Golden Hawks. The Golden Hawks were able to get the ball to Kalista Walters, whose spin move under the basket with 1:42 left in regulation led to a field goal and cut the deficit to 52-48.

Walters netted four more points, for a total of eight in the quarter and a game-high 22, to even the score at 52-52 but one last turnover by her team allowed Scranton Prep to earn the win.

Medina tried to call a timeout as Becahi passed the ball around the perimeter but the Golden Hawks lost it before his request could be granted.

Two foul shots by the Classics' Julia Sirotnak with 23.3 second remaining gave them the lead and closed out the scoring.

Bethlehem Catholic jumped out to an early 5-0 lead thanks to a Melhem three-pointer and two free throws from Walters making it look like it might be an easy day for the Golden Hawks.

Melhem noted that they weren't doing anything special offensively during the quick start, or as the game progressed for that matter.

"We were really just trying to execute our new offenses and look at all our options we had," said Melhem. "Obviously we got a new coach so we were just trying to see what we could run off the plays."

That would be the biggest lead the Golden Hawks would see.

A turnovers by Walters midway through the first quarter led to a three-pointer by Scranton Prep's Madison Ashby, which gave the Classics a 12-10 lead, their first of the day. The basket was part of a 20-3 run that helped keep Scranton Prep from trailing again the rest of the way.

Ashby scored a team-high 19 points for the Classics.

Medina acknowledged that the turnovers played a role in helping to build Scranton Prep's lead in the first half but refused to single out any play specifically. In fact, he took responsibility for the errors.

"I have to do a better job putting us in situations to be more effective, taking advantage of our strengths," said Medina. "I'll look at the tape and I'm going to see where I can do a better job of putting our girls in a better situation to execute.

"That's just part of being here at the program, learning, and for me it's all about getting better. We'll see, we'll look at the film, but we're definitely going to use that as an opportunity to learn from our mistakes and get better. And at the end of the day we will get better."

Despite the result, Medina thinks the Golden Hawks have a lot to build off of and didn't think the loss could be attributed to the lack of time he had to prepare his team.

"The great thing about playing today is there are some things I now know that we have to get better at," Medina said. "We're going to study the film and we're going to work on it."